by Antonio Mejías-Rentas
Javier Bardem
OSCAR BOUND: Three Latino filmmakers nominated last week for a Golden Globe award are likely contender’s for next year’s Academy Awards.
Nominees in the acting categories include Spanish actor Javier Bardem, who is up for a possible Golden Globe for his supporting role in No Country For Old Men. Bardem is a past Oscar nominee who is considered a frontrunner in the same category for the industry’s major award, whose nominees are to be announced Jan, 22. Bardem has already picked up acting awards from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review.
The other two Latino fi lm nominees are in musical categories. Last year’s Academy Award-nominated composer Alberto Iglesias is up for the score of The Kite Runner and Colombian singer Shakira grabbed a nomination for Despedida, a song she composed for the fi lm Love in the Time of Cholera.
Last week, Shakira’s song was included in a list released by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, with songs that qualify for the Oscar nomination. It is the only Spanish-language song to qualify this year; Jorge Drexler’s Al otro lado del río, from Diarios de motocicleta, won the Oscar in 2005.
A fourth Latino nominee was listed among Tv categories. América Ferrera is again nominated for best actress in a comedy, the award she won earlier this year for Ugly 13etty.
Given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Golden Globes will be handed out in Los Angeles on Jan. 13 in a ceremony to be broadcast by NBC.
Shakira
LABEL SUED: Last week’s announcement of nominations for the Premios lo Nuestro, organized by the Univisi6n network, coincided with published reports that its affiliated record label was facing three lawsuits, including two related to payola.
The Miami Herald reported that the president of Univision Music Group has sued Untvistn Communications, claiming the parent company hurt the label’s revenues to lessen the value of his equity stake in the company.
The suit was filed by José Behar last month in Los Angeles Superior Court.
His company, Diara, owns 10 percent of Univision Music. It claims damages of $33 million.
Univision is in the fi nal stages of an auction of the music division, which it put up for sale in July.
The other two lawsuits allege Univision Music bribed radio stations to play its songs and retaliated against executives who complained about the practice.
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